A man with a reported history of mental illness was arrested on Thursday after declaring himself the “acting president” of the United States and threatening to shoot Ted Cruz.
In a criminal complaint, an FBI agent alleged that Eric Kikkert of King County, Washington left threatening voicemail messages with the office of the Texas Republican senator, warning Mr Cruz directly that he would shoot him unless the senator spoke to him on the phone or acceded to Mr Kikkert’s demand to advocate for an unspecified “vaccine”.
According to the affidavit, the voicemails accompanied at least one email Mr Kikkert sent that was forwarded to Capitol Police in which the Washington state man alleged that unspecified persons, apparently members of Congress or the federal government, were “using due process to evade justice”. He went on to threaten to form a militia and “enforce the constitution myself”, to an unknown meaning.
